The Nemesis Code
by The Clever
Summary: "I've been acting more and more like him since he died. Well, since I killed him." ZAGF. Rated T for major character death.
1. Lifestopper

_A/N: _Hi there, The Clever here. I've actually written an Invader Zim fanfic that isn't idiotic or humorous. I still think it's pretty good.

Read, review, flame.

xxxxx

_It wasn't his first day on the job, but he was kind of stupid._

_You didn't have to be particularly smart to work at the Crazy House for Gerlz. They didn't have to worry about that one kid who was always escaping, and getting sent back, and escaping, and getting sent back—come to think of it, no one had seen that kid in months. _

_He idly tapped his fingers against his name tag- Jeremy, but his real name was spelled Jaramee- and wondered what happened to the kid. He was kind of entertaining. Sometimes Jaramee would sneak to the boys' house across the street and they would play Crazy Eights and the kid would blather about aliens and he never did learn his name. _

_But it was really stupid to snoop in the residents' things. They had a preternatural sort of sense, and could tell if their belongings had been messed with. _

_Jaramee wasn't very bright._

_So he fished the diary out of the forest of books and clothes and knives and teddy bears. There was some foreign kind of writing on the front in green, then underneath it, as though it was translated from it, a name._

_Gazlene. _

_It was written in a very harsh script, jerky letters, underlined several times in purple pen._

_He opened it up and he read:_

They told me I should write my thoughts down. They claim I've got to face up to what happened, or I could go to jail. This practically is a prison anyways.

I'm honestly just going to write gibberish until they stop looking at me.

Monkey tuba sandwich pickle face t-shirt birthdays sunshine penknife pigeon nebula starlight.

That was… therapeutic.

xxx

So apparently they're reading this and I need to write something down or they'll leave me in the bat cage again. And I really do not like bats.

My name is Gazlene, and I forgot my last name. Everyone just thinks it's Membrane because of my father but that's his first name but I tell people it's our last name and now I've forgotten what it really was. Amazing how poisonous stupidity is.

If he were here he would agree with me. He's actually the one who put a word to what I am. I can't write his language, but I found out the Earth term is 'misanthrope'.

I guess I'm as crazy as my brother now what with my throwing around words like 'the Earth term is' and 'why won't you people believe me' and 'I'm not crazy I swear'.

I've been acting more and more like him since he died.

Well, since I killed him.

My brother was fighting with him again. They never shut up, either of them. It's sickening really. It's completely sickening how your entire existence can be so wrapped up in that of someone you don't even love platonically. That you don't even tolerate. You can get so wrapped up in something or someone so pathetically stupid. I at least limit my unstoppable rage to a few days, unless I live with the person.

Not that you should get too obsessed with someone you love, either. All the girls at skool talk about that one book with the sexy zombie guy, I think it's called 'Sunset' or 'Starlight' or 'Sexy Zombies vs. Sexy Robots'. Either way, he just follows this girl around and everyone thinks it's so romantic and I think somebody really should have called the police on him.

Anyway.

So him and my brother are fighting like animals, one of them in the living room and one of them just outside the door, and I think 'what if they weren't fighting?' because I'm trying to beat this game and their voices are extremely distracting. And then I think 'they'll never stop fighting until one of them stops living' and I guess my brother was closest. So I paused my game and hit him in the side of the head with the controller and then I think I knocked him out, and Zim came barreling into my house because suddenly all the yelling has stopped and that's a little unexpected. And I'm still hitting him with the controller and it's really not the best weapon in the world, but I killed him.

There's a lot of blood on the carpet when he finally dies. Our dad probably was more upset at the stain than at the dead body.

They're bringing me some kind of soup so I'll write more later.

xxx

So about two minutes after the whole 'murder' thing I started screaming a bit, because I dented the side of my controller, and I'd got a bit of blood under my nails. It's kind of weird that I wasn't screaming because I'd killed a person, my brother no less, but because of dents and stains. I think I'd snapped a little bit.

Then there was this sound like a car pulling up outside and it was my **dad** and he wasn't supposed to be there, especially not before I figured out what to do with the body, and Zim picked me up like he did that one time when we were kids and hauled me into the backyard.

We ran a fair distance away from the house, and I don't know why Zim was even there. I didn't think Irkens really had that much of a murder taboo, but maybe he understood the Earth one. Which is pretty far-fetched, because he's too idiotic to understand much, but I guess he knew getting arrested for being an accessory to murder would put a damper on his plans to blow up the planet or impregnate the President Man with his alien spawn or whatever he was here to do.

I actually was convinced it was the last one.

So we're pretty far away but not far away enough to hear my dad start yelling and I tripped over something and we were in this ugly sort of foresty clearing. The trees all look two seconds from dying and the sky is even more disgusting looking, if that's possible. There were these grossly mutated butterflies that almost looked like little winged clowns.

I have to go back to the bat cage. Supposedly I did not make my bed the correct way.

So we wrapped up the daring escape through backyards and creepy forests and Zim informed me that he was taking me to his base. I said no at first, but he started rambling about how his base is the most secure building- why doesn't he just call it his house? - around and that he can't leave me alone because if the 'Earth authorities' find me I'll rat him out. Evidently the whole arrest thing would mess up his plans. I said no again, and he whipped out this metal tentacle thing and held the tip against my throat. It was pointed on the tip and could probably kill a person, and I was, possibly for the first time, afraid of another person.

Well, not a person. A being. A being who although he was a few inches shorter than me, could probably hold his own against me.

I let him kidnap me, because that's sort of what happened. He did threaten me and force me to go with him. Oh hell, I'm a kidnap victim now too.

I get into his house and his retarded robot tackled me. I threw it at a wall and it cried as best as a robot could. Then this little levitating moose thing floated into me and bumped into my arm. I picked it out of the air and squished it a little and asked Zim what it was. He said it's name was Minimoose and it had always been there. I started to say I had never seen it before, but Zim started screaming and flailing so I threw the moose thing at him.

I asked him what I was doing here, besides the ratting-out-thing, because he could have just killed me. Killing me would have prevented the whole thing.

And he explained that Irkens have a serious thing about having a nemesis. It's what – besides invading – they base most of their lives around. You find a nemesis. Doesn't matter if you're **their **nemesis, they just have to be yours. And until you can become the Tallest or something (their whole system is based on being tall, which is weird) you devote your whole life to attempting to destroy this person. Not just kill them, **destroy** them.

But here's the thing – this person could also be someone else's nemesis. So if that person kills them first, you've got to change you plans and spend a year learning from that person.

Because if they're good enough to kill your nemesis and you aren't, you're doing it wrong. Irkens, apparently, don't have time for you if you've been doing it wrong.

So you get two more chances to destroy your own nemesis. Once you've done that, you can go invade or something. It's like a training ritual. Makes sense, because if you start invading, a whole damn planet is gonna be full of your nemeses.

So Zim didn't actually destroy his nemesis, before. He says his nemesis was one of the Tallest, not the current one, and he may have accidentally killed her after she became Tallest. If your nemesis becomes Tallest you kind of have to quit bugging them, because you can't just go assassinating your leaders as part of training.

But he did kill her eventually, and he insisted that it counted. So to get him to shut up, they said he could invade something as long as he had a specific nemesis on that planet, and killed them before doing any serious invading.

And he picked my lovely brother.

Understandable. I've pretty much wanted to kill him ever since I understood the concept of killing.

So apparently Zim kidnapped me because I'm now officially his mentor. I started to leave, but something came up on the TV- apparently GIR was watching it- about me and Zim being missing.

It said to be on the look out for a girl, about 5'6", 140 pounds, Caucasian, purple hair, brown eyes. And a guy, 5'3", 120 pounds, green skin, bluish eyes, black hair.

Me and Zim.

And I realized that if I left, I'd be taken in. And I'd have to see my dad all slumped over like he does sometimes when he thinks I'm not looking, because he'd know it was my fault. There's a dented, bloody videogame controller covered with my fingerprints next to a dead body. Everyone would know it was my fault.

Contrary to popular opinion, I really do love my dad.

So I shut the door and started to talk about laying down some ground rules, but Zim just started yelling about his victory in the third person, and there wasn't anything small enough to throw at him, so I just sat down on the couch under the weird looking monkey painting and took out my GS3.

Apparently I need to go take a shower.

xxx

The showers here are ridiculous. I'm not even going to get into it because they'll think I'm crazy for bringing it up.


	2. Worldtraitor

_Jaramee put his legs up on the moldy coffee table in the break room. This diary was actually really interesting. It was like one of those murder stories he used to read when he had time. _

_He flipped to the last bookmark:_

I didn't write for about a day and a half and they stopped giving me the good soup. The relatively good soup, anyhow.

For the sake of my taste buds, I'm going to write again. I believe the last thing I wrote was Zim and the TV conning me into staying.

So I slept on the couch, and I had to use my sweater as a pillow. I was only wearing a bra underneath, so I really should have been more embarrassed when Zim showed up the next morning. But he didn't give a crap, and at this point I was past caring about decency.

He informed me that I was supposed to stay out of his labs for today, because he was doing something. And that I should disregard any screaming because Zim is amazing and can handle it himself.

That was suspicious, but I didn't care at all.

I was watching one of those movies where somebody kills a lot of people, usually teenagers. I don't even remember what it was called or what actors were in it, but it was predictable and familiar. I used to watch those movies with my aunt before she died. She always made me promise not to tell my dad, but I doubt he would have cared anyway.

So, as predicted, Zim started screaming and carrying on. I actually didn't distinguish it from the movie sounds at first, but the thing ended and he was still screaming. It didn't sound like typical Zim-screaming, more like actual pain.

I went into the labs because I thought it might be funny to watch, but it was actually pretty creepy.

Zim was lying on this table, next to some broken glass and some kind of purplish liquid. At first I thought it was blood, but then I remembered Dib obsessing over the fact that Irken blood was blue, like it would help him prevent the downfall of the planet.

There wasn't any actual blood in the room, but Zim was shrieking like a banshee and writhing around on the table. He was about six inches taller than he previously had been, and his skin was stretched tight over his body like he was stuffed into a sausage casing. His bones were all jutting out like they might cut his skin, and from the screaming it sounded like they were about to.

For whatever reason, I thought he had taken some kind of weird Jekyll-and-Hyde type of potion, and that he was going to start calling himself Tim and being nice to everyone.

I was very wrong.

After about ten minutes he got over himself and quieted down and sat up on the table. He yelled at me for being in his labs without permission, and he tried to stand up, and that's when I remembered that weird growth spurt he had last year. Grew a foot in two weeks. I guess he had some kind of serum that extends your skeleton, but not the rest of you. How has he not accidentally killed himself?

So he spent the next few days on the couch whining and eating far too much. He was honestly acting like a pregnant lady. He kept eating this weird alien snack food that kind of tasted like fish, but with sprinkles on it. It was even worse than the 'bad' soup.

Speaking of the bad soup, I'm going to continue writing later.

xxx

I asked him about the serum thing later, and he said it was as a form of disguise. They were looking for someone much shorter than he was now. I pointed out that he still had green skin – you've got to admit that's pretty noticeable – and he said everyone on Earth was too filthy and idiotic to notice. Which was true.

After a few more stupid slasher movies, Zim informed me that I needed some form of disguise too. I severely did not want to do whatever he had done to himself, because it looked incredibly painful. After some loud arguing, I resigned myself to dyeing my hair.

I coloured it black. It looked kind of scary and different, like it wasn't my face stuck onto my body. I also went out and got my eyebrow pierced. You can't really tell now, because they got rid of it once I got here, but it looked pretty cool.

After several days of altering my appearance, I looked like a totally different person. I had probably lost ten pounds since the incident, because I had completely lost all appetite for about two weeks. We used some other weird serum on my hair, so it was just past my shoulders. I had also pierced my ears a few times, but my clothes were majorly the same.

I'm only describing this because I look completely different now, and I wanted to make sure I remembered.

Some time later Zim remembered that I was supposed to be bossing him around. I tried teaching him how to fight, but all I could think of were things from that stupid self-defense class my dad made me take. Zim got kind of mad at me and informed me that he already knew how to fight. So I asked him why he hadn't managed to kill Dib, if he was so amazing, and he started calling me a liar and flailing around. I dumped half my soda on his head and left.

After I

xxx

I hadn't taken a shower in about a week, so they freaked out and assumed I was suicidal for whatever reason, and forced me to have hygiene.

After I walked out, about two hours later, Zim explained why I was really there.

He didn't need to learn how to fight (because he was **Zim**) he just assumed that I could help him with his next plan a bit faster than he could alone.

That was pretty weird, seeing as he hated just about all humanity, but apparently he liked my hateful nature and general disregard for my own species.

I agreed to help him out on three conditions: One, that he would manipulate his house to include a bedroom. One with a door that locked from the inside, because the couch is uncomfortable, and I like my privacy. Two, that I wouldn't just get killed off after all of this started. Three, that my dad would conveniently be out of the city when all of this started.

Eventually he explained the plan, and I shot down several of his ideas (because they were stupid), and we formed kind of step system.

Basically his plan was to burn down the city and use the ruins as a sort of base of operations. From there, he would try to keep the fires going until either he burned down the whole world, or the survivors surrendered.

His original plan was to use 'the primitive human strategy game of Rock Paper Scissors' to bet various countries with their leaders. There were all kinds of things wrong with that scenario. Mainly the fact that Zim didn't know the basic rules of Rock Paper Scissors and thought it involved bludgeoning people to death with actual rocks.

He also wanted to gain control of the planet instead of just destroying it, but from his rambles about the superiority of Irken culture, and the messages I had been eavesdropping on, that wasn't actually part of the plan.

We started working on various methods of starting fires, many of which failed. One of them actually worked, but it was really hard to control and we almost got ourselves killed.

It's pretty hard to destroy anything from beyond the grave.

We actually were fairly close before any of the murdering happened. Or at least close enough that he had long since dropped the suffix of –human from the end of my name, and just called me Gaz. It was mainly to annoy my brother, but I actually liked his company most of the time. He made me look smarter in comparison.

I guess that was the reason I was stuck with him now. It was either genuine friendship, or love that I had been informed I had. Family only gets you so far, and I really didn't care much about him. Or maybe I had just snapped.

Either way I was attempting to conquer the world with a megalomaniac bug-man, and I liked it.


	3. Earthburner

_It was getting a little bit creepy now, Jaramee had to admit. It was less and less like a murder story and more and more like a young girl slowly going madder and madder. Several entries were just gibberish, or so he thought. They were just scratchy letters in some language he had never seen before._

_Shakily, he read on:_

Now we're getting to about a week and a half ago, when the plan was actually put into motion. It was actually really upsetting for me, because I had, despite myself, liked staying with Zim. His general indifference towards me was nice. I never had to worry about him trying to interact with me much more than necessary, or getting me to stop squinting because I was going to end up with glasses (I did end up with them once I got here, apparently they don't like it when their crazies can't see).

But sometimes we would just watch some movie about teenagers in love, and laugh at human stupidity. We would work on the explosive together, not even talking. Well, I wouldn't talk much. Zim would rant about something, because that's what he does.

I honestly believe that killing my brother was the best thing I've ever done sometimes. That's pretty scary.

So this is the part of the story where I explain why I'm here.

Zim and me were going to start with the NASAplace, as a nod to my dearly departed Dib. We tried to go in when everyone was out, only cause a bit of destruction before the real fun started. We got caught.

Well, mostly Zim got caught.

Like with most great visionaries, people only believed Dib once he was dead. Apparently the NASAplace janitor was a big deal in his secret leprechaun-fighting society or what have you.

They tried to cut him up.

And I guess I went a bit crazy after that. Not overly-violent-crazy, I've been told. Just running around like a rabid animal.

And that's why I'm here. They found me around the back of Zim's house, wounded and screaming. I've been told I put up a fight, but I was weak, and small. I just hope I didn't hurt anyone else.

_Hazy, pink gas clouded Jaramee's vision for a moment. It smelled kind of like his daughter's perfume. He looked around the small room, suddenly feeling dizzy._

I didn't mean it, not any of it. I guess I was under some kind of mind-control, obviously. Zim definitely wasn't an alien, I know that now. That's what they told me. And they're right. Aliens aren't real.

I'm sorry I caused anyone any trouble. The control seems to have worn off. I'm me again, I know for sure that I'm me again. I need to get out of here, I'm not supposed to be here.

Please, I'm so tired.

_Jaramee placed the diary down as though it might explode. Poor girl. Poor, poor, lost little girl. A madman was obviously controlling her._

_But there was one way to know for sure._

_The stamp in the back of the book directed him to room 94. _

_And a new story began there:_

A guard walked down a dark corridor, his black heavy shoes clomping on the ground. He stumbled a bit, falling against a wall before regaining his stride. His mud-yellow eyes scanned the numbers on the doors, and his blond, tufty hair bounced with each heavy step. He found a room with two blue numbers on the door, ninety-four. With some difficulty, he removed the corresponding key from his pocket.

His name was Jaramee and he was about to destroy his own planet.

A smallish girl sat against the left wall. She had square glasses and a straitjacket. Her hair was mottled purple and black, and her eyes were brown.

"Hello," she said, voice high and innocent.

"Hello," Jaramee replied.

"What's your name?"

"Jaramee, miss."

"I'm Gaz."

"Yes," he trilled, tilting against the doorframe. Suddenly there were two smallish girls—no, just one. "You're Gaz, and I'm letting you go home."

She stared at him, wide-eyed and questioning. He walked unsteadily over to her, releasing her from her straitjacket. "Come with me."

"…sir?" Gaz called. "May I get my diary? It's a gift from my aunt."

"O-of course," Jaramee whispered. Everything was sort of fuzzy around the edges.

He led her to the room where all the possessions were kept. She went straight for the book, opened it up, and messed with a few of the pages. Not that Jaramee noticed, he was staring at a small, red, glowing moth.

"May I use the bathroom before I leave?" Gaz's voice was much less lilting now, more harsh and commanding. Jaramee nodded silently and pointed her to the unisex bathroom down the hall. He stayed to watch the moth that no one else could see.

A few minutes later, she emerged, sparkling a little bit. "Goodbye, Jaramee," she said in a low monotone.

Guard and Girl swept toward the exit door, but only Girl went out.

Guard had to find somewhere quiet to throw up.

A taxi had pulled up out front. Gaz tossed her new glasses into the road, where they were promptly crushed by a semitruck. She stepped into the taxi, putting on her happiest and most mocking expression. "Wow, Zim! You figured out how taxicabs work! You evil genius, you."

A skinny green boy looked at her from the opposite seat. "You smell worse than usual, _Gaz._"

"Apparently, if you shower more than every three days, you have OCD. And if you shower less than every five days, you're suicidal."

"Hmmm," said Zim, distractedly flicking a bug that had made its way into the car. "_Fa_scinating."

"Missed you, too," Gaz sassed, grabbing Zim into a headlock. He screamed his discomfort at her proximity and smell. She let him go, smirking at his pain.

He adjusted his wig. "How long till the diary bl—eh, until you receive the telephone transmission from your paternal aunt?" Zim questioned, smooth as ever.

"About ten minutes. Thank you for delivering her gift," Gaz played along. "It was rather… ingenious."

"Of course. Everything Zim— ah, your _auntie_—does is ingenious."

"Whatever. Just tell her I said thank you," she said, making eye contact for the first time. Zim gave her a superior grin. "Wipe that stupid look of your face."

"My face isn't _stu_pid. It is much more intelligent than that _thing _you keep on the front of your head."

"No, your face is pretty dumb." She pointed to his cheekbone. "Like that thing right there, what is that? Looks like some kind of infection."

Zim gasped and clamped a hand to his cheek. "Wha—NO! I've been infected by your stupid _humanity!_"

"Yeah. You're probably going to die now." Gaz leaned back into the seat, calmly watching Zim flip out.

About five minutes away, Jaramee swiped a hand over his vomit-covered mouth. The vile, viscous liquid in the toilet swooshed away. He turned away and looked into the mirror. His pupils were dilated to the size of dimes, and there was a magenta smear across his cheekbone. He really hadn't felt well since he read that last diary entry. His mind was slow. Everything was slow…

There was a small book on the sink. The book that started all this. He picked it up. It beeped and twitched in his hand.

"Miss," he croaked. "Miss, you forgot your diary." He slipped to the filthy bathroom floor. "MISS!" He roared, trying to stay conscious. He was failing rapidly.

"Please, miss. You forgot your aunt's diary," he whispered, slipping into darkness.

The Crazy House for Gerlz burst into flames.

xxx

The death of humanity looked so beautiful from the space station. A fire-soaked sapphire, a lonely, burning planet in a sea of stars.

An ugly blue-green smudge on the universe's bathroom floor.

Gaz's eyes flicked from the burning Earth to a shuttle moving into deeper space. Her father was in there, headed for the military research prison on Vort. She guessed it was better than dying, but not much.

Zim walked into the room, grinning maniacally. He leaned against the glass as though he had no idea it was separating him from the vacuum of space. Gaz didn't turn her attention from the Earth.

"So… now what? We call your leaders and get a gold star sticker?"

"Eh… here's a hilarious story."

"Zim, what the hell did you do."

"Nothing! Not on _purpose!_ I just may or may not have gotten myself kicked out of the Irken race."

"Took you long enough."

"Well I- HEY!" he glared at his accomplice. She rocked back on her heels and glared back.

"Do I get a short answer?"

Zim launched into an explanation of how he had nearly destroyed his entire race, and several other planets besides, and had been the only 'invader' who hadn't already conquered their planet. Until he had been stripped of his title as 'invader' and expelled from his own species.

"That wasn't a short answer at all."

"You _hu_mans and your short answers."

"Why didn't you mention this to me earlier?"

"You were writing pathetic diary entries and forgetting about your stupid human hygiene."

"Mmhm," Gaz replied. "Good times. So I didn't actually need to destroy my home planet and send my father off to the back of the universe."

Zim pulled a small tablet-like device out of his PAK. "Are you even upset?" he questioned indifferently.

"N-no. I'm not. Hm." She looked at the flicker screen. "What're you doing?"

"Planning a little bit of revenge," Zim said, holding the tablet-thing so Gaz could see.

The screen was dotted with little blue circles in small, specific patterns. Gaz guessed they were planets and solar systems and galaxies. Most of the planets were marked with a magenta insignia, and the word 'target' written in Irken script.

"This _revenge,_" she said, taking her time with the word. "Does it involve fire?"

"What kind of revenge _doesn't _involve fire?"

"Most of the human kind."

"That's stupid."

"Does the revenge involve going rogue?"

Zim waited as his PAK attempted to define her sentence, before nodding quickly.

"And am I necessary to it?"

"No-"

"Perfect. I'm in."

"WHA- NO! I- NOOOOOO! BUT YOU- _NOOOO!_"

"Where do we start?"

"This one," Zim suddenly calmed down and indicated a small 'target' planet a fair distance from a flaming one.

"Is that… Is that _Pluto? _The Irkens are on Pluto now?"

"Not for long, Gaz-beast." Zim glared across the galaxy, across most of the known universe, wishing his eyes could fire lasers right into the Massive itself.

But for now, he'd start with Pluto.


	4. Transmission

TRANSMISSION FROM THE EMPIRE WARNING SYSTEM

MARKED: 27098/32/56, 156:90 KM

BROADCAST TO ALL PLANETS UNDER THE IRKEN EMPIRE:

Many of you have heard about the three wanted criminals we've been tracking. We will still be tracking them, but now we need to call in a bit of help.

We're looking for:

A red-eyed Irken, dressed in the old invader uniform, male

A pale-skinned purple-eyed creature (species unconfirmed), probably female

A defective old-model SIR unit

They have been accompanied by a MINIMOOSE MODEL 2643, but it doesn't seem to be fighting along-side them. It's still wanted, though. We guess. Just bring all of them in for the full reward.

So far, they have attacked and leveled six planets under the Empire, and attempted to level two others. We have not taken this matter lightly.

If any of the criminals are viewing this transmission right now, you will be executed quickly. If we have to bring you in, we assure you your deaths will be anything but quick and painless.

Do not think we aren't taking this problem seriously. We've got anyone we can spare working on tracking you.

You have been warned.

-THE ALMIGHTY TALLEST


End file.
